On September 27, 2021, Gunther Beger, the German Executive Director at the World Bank, met with the Assistant Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Ute Klamert.
Gunther Beger emphasized that Germany would continue its long-standing commitment to fighting hunger under a new government. There was agreement that cooperation between the World Bank and WFP to fight hunger worldwide must be intensified. The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the increase in the number of hungry people worldwide. This has also pushed the Sustainable Development Goal of ending world hunger by 2030 further away. The situation in Afghanistan, where a humanitarian catastrophe is looming due to the Taliban's seizure of power and drought-related crop failures, is also worrying. Swift action is needed to help the suffering population. With a view to the upcoming replenishment of IDA funds for the world's poorest countries, Ute Klamert suggested that the disbursement modalities of funds from the Early Response Fund under the IDA Crisis Response Window should be accelerated in order to be able to respond more quickly to crises. Gunther Beger explained that the Board of Directors, as the supervisory body of the World Bank, had already taken up this point and was in exchange with the World Bank management on this issue in the replenishment negotiations